Review by Dr. Mahmood Ghazi

Title: Slippery Stone: An Inquiry into Islam’s Stance on MusicAuthor: Khalid BaigPublisher: Open Mind PressYear: 2008384 pages.

Slippery Stone: Cultural Colonialism and the Music Question

The dawn of the colonization of Afro-Asian world in general and the Muslim world in particularbrought in its wake efforts by the western academia to justify colonization in a variety of ways. Theso-called “white man’s burden” to educate and civilize the barbaric, primitive and illiterate masses ofAsia and Africa was based on the presumption of the total absence of all culture, civilization,religious beliefs and knowledge in the countries occupied by the colonial powers, initially forcommercial purposes under purely economic motives.

The colonial powers of Britain and France particularly faced formidable resistance at the hands ofMuslim freedom fighters almost everywhere in the colonized regions of Asia and Africa. Whatprompted Muslim freedom fighters to resist foreign occupation was their deep desire to preservetheir Islamic identity, and protect Islamic culture and civilization in their respective regions. Thisfierce resistance necessitated thorough study of the Orient, its history, culture and religion. Duringthe next two centuries the conflict got intensified and regenerated interest in the study of Islamicculture, civilization and religion.In this process, many western scholars tried to create confusion about those aspects of Islamicculture, civilization and religion which were responsible for reinforcing Muslim resistance to westernpowers and which were the main cause of the difficulties and obstacles faced by the colonizers. TheIslamic unity as exemplified in Khilafah, love for freedom and dedication to make sacrifices for thesake of Islam as exemplified in Jihad, condemnation of any form of dissociation from Islam and

Muslim community, represented in the punishment of apostasy, were some such aspects consideredby western observers as serious obstacles in the way of the success of the colonial agenda.

With the passage of time, it was felt necessary that in order to ensure the protection of their intereston a long term basis, the colonial powers should create a generation within Muslim countries whichwould be western in their opinion and taste, but oriental in color and ethnic affiliation. Macaulay, theauthor of this idea, was perhaps the most successful colonial thinker who gave a new dimension towestern colonialism which may be termed as intellectual colonialism.

This new intellectual and academic policy soon resulted in cultural and civilizational colonialism aswell. Although political and military colonization allegedly come to an end during the second half oftwentieth century, these three forms of colonization, namely intellectual, cultural and civilizationalare still continuing. It is now evident that some western powers have the continuation of theseforms of colonization at the top of their agenda. The elimination of cultural identities of othercivilizations, obliteration of distinct features of non-western cultures, rejection and condemnation ofnon-western legal systems and spurning oriental social patterns constitute the fundamental elementsof this agenda. The media tirade against Islamic laws, targeting social habits in Muslim societies andcaricaturing cultural patterns of Muslim societies has become the order of the day.

In pursuance of this agenda, some orientalists undertook to portray Islamic culture and civilizationas representing some archaic, outmoded, inhuman, and barbaric remnants of the medieval ages. Thatis why Muslim aversion to carnal expressions of human sentiments in fine art was projected as amajor handicap in the way of cultural sophistication. To deal with this ‘malady’ they started effortsto popularize their social ethos and life styles in the Muslim world.

Muslim concept of artistic performance and finer expression of their sense of aesthetics wasdifferent from the prevalent western styles. In fact, Islam represented a stage of perfection andmaturity of the human mind. Most primitive religions and primitive societies emphasized thephysical aspect of life at the cost of its moral and spiritual aspects. To them, the sensual aspect ofhuman existence outweighed the inner and higher human values. This primitiveness was reflected inworshipping physical phenomena believed to be representing the Reality. Music and dance thusbecame integral part of worship in many primitive religions.

In fact, Islam declared the inauguration of a perfect religion, a final way of life, an accomplishedlegal and moral system and a panhuman culture and civilization. The Islamic Shariah contemplatesintellectual maturity of human beings and presumes the moral perfection of human life andbehavior. The laws of the Shariah are based on higher moral ideals and finer spiritual virtues. Islam’sapproach to the reality of life is constructive and positive. It is forward-looking. It is morallymotivated and spiritually oriented. To Islam, human physique is the vehicle of moral ideals; body isthe locus of the spirit.

This has given a new dimension to the idea of beauty and aesthetics in Islam. This morally rich andspiritually impregnated concept of aesthetics is reflected in Islamic fine arts, Muslim poetry,architecture, calligraphy, book decoration, pottery, carpet-designing, and so on, which represent onlythe higher moral ideals and spiritual values. . There is hardly anything in Islamic art whichdemonstrates any sensual motivation on the part of their respective authors.

In this conception of society, of aesthetic and fine arts, music had little place, if at all. Muslimsocieties, by and large, have been averse to music and dancing. These two expressions of sensualityin the name of art have been extremely rare in Muslim societies and were always confined to a verylimited and insignificant section of the society, mostly representing the periphery, despiteinvolvement of and encouragement from the ruling class. Muslim history bears testimony that carnaland sensual expression of art and aesthetics have never occupied any respectable place in Muslimsocieties. Those who took interest in these expressions were always denied a central position inMuslim social hierarchy.

This situation however underwent a change by the middle of twentieth century in general and by theintroduction of powerful print and electronic media in particular. The result of this media crusadefor the promotion of music and dance culture has been tremendous. Soon, the domestic mediawithin the Muslim world also entered the arena in a much wider and powerful way and filled Muslimsocieties with general enchantment with sensual pleasures.

It is in this background that Khalid Baig decided to undertake a comprehensive inquiry into thewhole issue. Such an exercise was needed in view of a series of writings by some modernists andpseudo-jurists of Islam in the twentieth century who styled themselves as the new reformers ofMuslim society and tried to save it from the monotony of religious life. Many such self-styledmujtahids have also played up some of the practices of the Sufis who used to listen to moral ordevotional poetry. Although, even this practice, done under strict conditions, was never approved bythe over-whelming majority of the jurists, some modernist writers rely on this practice to justifymusic and even dance. Some writers also refer to the interest taken by some companions of theProphet in Arabic poetry to justify excessive involvement in music and the musical instruments,thereby justifying the introduction of the western culture of night life in Muslim societies.The present volume by the author is a welcome addition to the existing literature on Islam’s positionon art and poetry, use of music and musical instruments. The author has very rightly and succinctlydiscussed the question of the terminology used in this discussion in the very beginning. This isimportant since much confusion resulted from the use, or misuse, of various terms interchangeably,sometimes unintentionally and at times intentionally.

He has established that the word music has never been used in Islamic literature. This is originally aGreek word and now used in all western languages and many Muslim languages as well. It onlyfound its way in Muslim writings much later. The Quran, the Sunnah, and writings of early jurists arenot familiar with this word. Therefore, any effort for the justification of music from early Islamic

literature is preposterous. The terms used in early Islamic literature are: ghina’, mazamir, ma’azaif,malahi. Some modern writers have either ignored the negative mention of these terms in Islamicliterature or have arbitrarily interpreted them in such a way that their negative nuance is extremelydiluted.One basic thing the author has brought to limelight is the concern of the Shariah to ensure constantvigilance and presence of mind on the part on the believers. The Quran disapproves of every suchthing that diverts attention from serious matters of life to non-serious concerns. Theterms lahw and malahi are very significant. Literally meaning instruments or means of diversion,these are effective vehicles for projecting, promoting and communicating baser sentiments. Theseemotions are kept hidden in everyone’s deep self for a limited and controlled use for constructivepurposes. Attempting to bring these emotions to the forefront only to occupy a central place inhuman life has been discouraged even by those Sufis whose references are used to justify the newlife style in which. the control of human psyche, mind, heart and body is lost and both the individualand the society are carried away by carnal desires.The author has divided the book into three broad sections or parts. Part one surveys the historicalperspective. Consisting of four chapters, it deals with the position of Islam on poetry and the roleplayed by poetry in pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabia. A history of music in Arabia before andafter Islam has also been briefly surveyed. One significant contribution of this part is the discussionon the role of the orientalists in highlighting the hidden stories of musicians and projecting theirlimited influence on a wide level.

Part two constitutes the core of the book and is entitled: Clearing the Fog. Consisting of sixchapters, it surveys the whole range of Islamic literature starting from the Qur’anic verses andsayings of the Prophet of Islam to the writings of the jurists of various schools. In this chapter, thelearned author has consulted the writings of leading Muslim scholars, jurists and the Sufis. He hasalso given a summary of the rulings of the jurists of all major schools is Islamic law.

In chapter eight, entitled “The Sufi Perspective,” he has summarized the views of the great Sufisincluding Imam Ghazali on sama’. This exposition of the Sufi perspective pulls the carpet fromunderneath the feet of those who try to justify the introduction of music culture on the basis of theSufi practice of sama’.Part three surveys the present situation and highlights some of the problem faced by Muslim youthin the present day. At the end of the book, four appendices have been added containing rulingson anashid, music debate in history, biographical notes and glossary of important terms.Slippery Stone is well researched and thorough work on its subject. It deals with the core of thesubject as well as with many relevant issues which further throw light on it. I am confident that thebook will be widely read by students of Islamic law as well as by general readers interested inunderstanding the position of Islamic culture on music and other similar forms of artisticexpression.

Dr. Mahmood Ahmed Ghazi was the president of the International Islamic University,Islamabad.